Over the life of a nuclear power plant, various power plant internals will need to be decommissioned. During the decommissioning process, the components being deconmmissioned are generally cut-up into smaller segments to facilitate removal and storage. When the retired components are being cut-up, microscopic radioactive particles are produced. To reduce the amount of airborne particles, the cutting process is often carried out in the reactor pool cavity. Consequently, the microscopic particles generated become suspended in the water cavity. However, these particles can be spread throughout the power plant through the water cavity, causing increased exposure to personnel or additional contamination to the nuclear utility.
Thus, there is needed a cutting zone barrier that isolates the cutting zone from the entire pool cavity to reduce the spread of unwanted contamination.